How should we define the Data Science professions?

Data Science is a complex profession, where several competences from multiple disciplines have to be combined to identify a profile of professional competences that are required more and more in several employment contexts and stakeholder domains.

The employment market segments for data scientists range from pure e-Science driven by research communities, to applications of Data Science Professionals in Public Institutions like e.g. Memory Institutions as well as to any industry sectors and corresponding labour market segments, from pharmaceutical, to manufacturing, aerospace, energy, etc

Defining the Data Science profession: we would love to hear your views too

EDISON will put in place foundation mechanisms that, in the long term, will speed-up the increase in the number of competent and qualified Data Scientists in Europe. Whilst EDISON cannot guarantee a specific increase in the number of Data Scientists, the project success can be measured by the delivery of products and services that will lead to the required increase in the near future. For this reason the project objectives are determined by specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-limited products and services that will establish the conditions for this increase in Data Scientists to occur.

The emergence of Data Science technologies is having an impact, at a fundamental level, on nearly every aspect of how research is conducted, how the scientists think, and how research data are used and shared.

What skills will tomorrow's Data Scientists need?

The effective use of Data Science technologies requires new skills and demands for new professions, usually referred as the Data Scientist: an expert who is capable both to extract meaningful value from the data collected and also manage the whole lifecycle of Data, including supporting Scientific Data e-Infrastructures.

The future Data Scientists must posses knowledge (and obtain competencies and skills) in data mining and analytics, information visualisation and communication, as well as in statistics, engineering and computer science, and acquire experiences in the specific research or industry domain of their future work and specialisation. We call this profession the Data Science Professional (DSP).

The establishment of the Data Scientist as a new profession is a long process, starting from the solid theoretical background all the way to the practical process of certifying the acquired skills. As CSA project, EDISON ultimately aims to accelerate such a process by coordinating the vision and activities of the stakeholders and supporting them in seizing the benefits of such efforts.

Acknowledgement

The EDISON project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 675419. This website reflects only the author’s view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Partners

The core EDISON consortium comprises seven partners from different countries across Europe.